The EU will continue to call for the respect of human rights of all Ukrainian citizens in Crimea, including Crimean Tatars.

REUTERS

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini has said the European Union does not recognize the so-called Russian presidential elections in Russian-occupied Crimea.

"For us, and for me personally also, it is extremely important that this visit I pay to Kyiv is happening just a few days before the fourth anniversary of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol," she said at a joint briefing with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv, according to the official website of the European Commission.

"We do not recognize the annexation. We will continue in our implementation of the non-recognition policy of the annexation. And we continue to condemn this violation of international law," she said.

"We do not recognize the so-called 'elections' there and we remain committed to the full implementation of our non-recognition policy, as I said, including through sanctions related to this."

"We will continue to call for the respect of human rights of all Ukrainian citizens in Crimea, including Crimean Tatars, and we will continue to call for the immediate release of all those who have been detained and sentenced in breach of international law," Mogherini added.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter